SOUTHERN ILLINOIS CHAIR MAKER AMONG ARTISTS AT ARTS, CRAFTS FAIR

Two rockers waited to be finished outside Rory Jaros' workshop near Makanda, Ill.

MAKANDA, Ill. -- Chair maker Rory Jaros lives by a creek at the end of a gravel road at the edge of the Shawnee National Forest. He and his wife, Jenny, are raising two children in the solid cabin Jaros built, a cabin heated with wood, the electricity supplied by solar panels and a generator even though power lines are nearby.

This is Jaros' version of Thoreau's Walden Pond. He has named his finest chair the Walden rocker.

"The spirit of it runs through my life," he says.

Jaros makes fine riven chairs from "the lost jewels of the Shawnee Forest," dying red oak and walnut trees he harvests in the name of "making use of peripheral resources."

Riven wood is split along the grain with wedges instead of sawn. Jaros shapes the parts with steam, muscle and hand tools and uses no nails in them.

They are Shaker simple and without artifice, like the way he and his family live. "It blows me away, the beauty of life if you just let it be," he says.

Jaros and other artisans will demonstrate their work Saturday and Sunday at the 28th annual Spring Arts & Crafts Fair. The fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days at the A.C. Brase Arena Building in Arena Park.

Grant Lund will pull prints. Oran's Cleda Curtis will lead a class in portrait painting, and potters, weavers and stained glassmakers will demonstrate their skills. The array of demonstrations signal a return to the fair's original concept.

"It began as a working artisan fair with demonstrations by artists and work you could purchase," says Daniel North, assistant to the executive director of the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri.

"Over the years it turned into more of a craft fair. We've tried to bring it back to its roots."

About half the show's 90 exhibits will be devoted to working artisans. Others include Western artist Norm Bernier from Bismarck and marble maker Sam Davisson and jeweler Pat Ziechi, both from Sedalia.

"Chair maker at large" is the term Jaros chooses to describe himself, and his creations in seven different styles he calls "sitting structures."

He moved to Southern Illinois from Cook County 22 years ago, a carpenter who was the son of a carpenter. He was amazed to see people burning walnut trees for firewood.

"I realized if a guy could make something out of wood, the resource was here," he said. "I set out to fashion an enterprise."

Jaros taught himself how to make chairs, using methods and tools made nearly extinct by mass production. The process is time consuming and requires high-grade wood.

"My goal is to produce an heirloom-quality piece," he says.

He can make only about 12 Walden rockers in a year, so his chairs tend to be bought by people more concerned with craftsmanship than a bargain.

"They're people who recognize the beauty of caring for themselves," he says.

The seat of another chair is made of woven hickory bark. "Hickory bark has no value except for what I do with it," he says.

Jaros thinks money is a funny thing and tries to maintain a lifestyle that doesn't depend on having it.

"I recognize that cash flow is an addiction. I'm compiling security of a less tangible sort," he says.

"My kids are going to have to fend for themselves. What I have is values to give them."

One of those prompted the decision to create their own electricity.

"I have a loathing for an industry that provides twice as much energy as we need," Jaros says. "That's stealing from the future."

He's a tree-hugger at heart. "I'm one of these people who wants to save some of what we have for the future."

He thanks the Boy Scouts for teaching him that.